Editing Whole-tone scale (section)

==Classical music==
{{See also|List of pieces that use the whole-tone scale}}

In 1662, [[Johann Rudolf Ahle]] wrote a melody to the lyrics of [[Franz Joachim Burmeister]]'s "[[Es ist genug]]" (It is enough), beginning it with four notes of the whole-tone scale on the four syllables.{{Clarify|date=August 2019|reason=Why is this a whole-tone scale and not the first four notes of the Lydian mode? After all, there is a semitone next.}} [[Johann Sebastian Bach]] chose the [[chorale]] to end his cantata [[O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 60|''O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort'', BWV 60]], set for four parts. The first four measures are shown below.

:<score sound="1">
   \new PianoStaff <<
      \new Staff <<
         \new Voice \relative c' {
             \stemUp \clef treble \key f \major \time 4/4
             \[ f2 g4 a
             b2 \] r4 b
             c4 g g bes!
             a2.
             }
         \new Voice \relative c' {
             \stemDown
              c2 c4 bes8 a
              e'2 s4 e
              e4. f8 e d e c
              f2.
              }
            >>
     \new Staff <<
         \new Voice \relative c' {
             \stemUp \clef bass \key f \major \time 4/4
             a2 g4 d'
             d2 r4 gis,
             a8 b c4 c c
             c2.
             }
         \new Voice \relative c {
             \stemDown
             f2 e4 fis
             gis2 s4 e
             a8 g!16 f e8 d c bes! a g!
             f2.
             }
         >>
    >>
</score>
[[File:Sheherazade opening, trombone bass.wav|thumb|Sheherazade opening, trombone bass]]

[[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] also used the scale in his ''[[A Musical Joke|Musical Joke]]'', for strings and horns.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/romanticgenerati0000rose/page/556|title=The Romantic Generation|last=Rosen|first=Charles|author-link=Charles Rosen|isbn=0674779339|location=Cambridge, Mass.|pages=[https://archive.org/details/romanticgenerati0000rose/page/556 556]|oclc=31710528|date=January 1995}}</ref>

[[File:Chopin Prelude Op 28 No 19 consecutive diminished seventh chords as whole tone scale harmony.png|thumb|550px|center|Whole-tone scales created by consecutive [[secondary chord|secondary]] [[diminished seventh chord]]s in Chopin's [[Preludes (Chopin)|Op. 28, No. 19: Prelude]] (1832)<ref>Piston (1987/1941), p. 491. Piston analyses {{nowrap|vii{{music|dim}}7}} as {{nowrap|V{{sup sub|{{music|dim}}|9}}}} (with a missing/implied root) and doesn't include macro analysis.</ref> The notes of one whole-tone scale are colored red (E{{music|b}}) and the notes of the other are blue (E); chromaticism is accompanied by whole-tone scale melodic progression, as in the bass.
[[File:Chopin Prelude Op 28 No 19 consecutive diminished seventh chords as whole tone scale harmony.mid|thumb|center]]]]

In the 19th century, Russian composers went further with melodic and harmonic possibilities of the scale, often to depict the ominous; examples include the endings of the [[overture]]s to [[Mikhail Glinka|Glinka]]'s opera ''[[Ruslan and Lyudmila (opera)|Ruslan and Lyudmila]]'' and [[Alexander Borodin|Borodin]]'s ''[[Prince Igor]]'', and the Commander's theme in [[Alexander Dargomyzhsky|Dargomyzhsky]]'s ''[[The Stone Guest (Dargomyzhsky)|The Stone Guest]]''. Further examples can be found in the works of [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov]]: the sea king's music in ''[[Sadko (opera)|Sadko]]'' and also in ''[[Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)|Scheherazade]]''. Shown below is the opening theme to ''Scheherazade'', which is "simply a descending whole-tone scale with [[diatonic]] trimmings."<ref>Abraham, Gerald. "The Whole-Tone Scale in Russian Music", p. 602, ''[[The Musical Times]]'', vol. 74, no. 1085. (July 1933), pp. 602–604.</ref> Notes in the whole-tone scale are highlighted.

:<score sound="1">
  \relative c{
    \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"tuba"
    \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t
    \tempo 4 = 130
    \clef bass
    \key g \major
    \time 2/2
      \once \override NoteHead.color = #red e2 \ff b \override NoteHead.color = #red d~ \times 2/3 { d4 c \override NoteHead.color = #black b } \override NoteHead.color = #red c2.~\startTrillSpan c8. \override NoteHead.color = #black g16\stopTrillSpan \override NoteHead.color = #red ais2\accent\staccato fis\accent\staccato
  }
</score>

(For some short piano pieces written completely in whole-tone scale, see Nos. 1, 6, and 7 from [[Vladimir Rebikov|V.A. Rebikov's]] [http://imslp.org/wiki/Une_f%C3%AAte%2C_Op.38_(Rebikov%2C_Vladimir_Ivanovich) ''Празднество'' (''Une fête''), Op. 38], from 1907.)

[[H. C. Colles]] names as the "childhood of the whole-tone scale" the music of [[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]] and [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]] in France and Austria and then Russians Glinka and Dargomyzhsky.<ref>"The Childhood of the Whole-Tone Scale", pp. 17-19. H. C. Colles. ''[[The Musical Times]]'', vol. 55, no. 851. (January 1, 1914), pp. 16–20.</ref> [[Claude Debussy]], who had been influenced by Russians, along with other [[Impressionist music|impressionist]] composes made extensive use of whole-tone scales. ''[[Voiles]]'', the second piece in Debussy's first book of ''[[Préludes (Debussy)|Préludes]]'', is almost entirely within one whole-tone scale.<ref>Benward & Saker (2009). ''Music in Theory and Practice: Volume II'', p. 246. Eighth edition. {{ISBN|978-0-07-310188-0}}.</ref><ref>Benward & Saker (2003). ''Music: In Theory and Practice, Vol. I'', p. 39. Seventh edition. {{ISBN|978-0-07-294262-0}}.</ref> The opening measures are shown below.

:<score sound="1">
    {
      \new PianoStaff <<
        \new Staff <<
            \relative c'' {
                \tempo Modéré 8 = 88
                \clef treble \key c \major \time 2/4
                r4^\markup { "(Dans un rythme sans rigueur et caressant.)" } <e gis>8--~(_\markup { \dynamic p \italic "très doux" } <e gis>32 <d fis> <c e> <bes d>
                <aes c>8..\< <gis' c>32 <fis bes>4)\>
                r4\! <e gis>8--~(_\markup { \dynamic p } <e gis>32\> <d fis> <c e> <bes d>\!
                <aes c>4~_\markup { \italic "più" \dynamic p } <aes c>16\> <fis bes> <e aes> <d fis>)\!
                }
            >>
        \new Staff <<
            \relative c' {
                \clef bass \key c \major \time 2/4
                R2 R R R
                }
            >>
    >> }
</score>

[[Janáček]]'s use of the scale in the bracing opening to the second movement of his ''[[Sinfonietta (Janáček)|Sinfonietta]]'' is, to quote William W. Austin, "utterly different". Austin writes, "Janáček’s free [[chromaticism]] never loses touch with a diatonic scale for long. Though the whole-tone scale is prominent in much of his music after 1905 when he encountered Debussy, it serves simply to fit the motifs over [[augmented chord]]s. The same motifs return from the whole-tone to the diatonic scale without emphasizing the contrast."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/musicin20thcentu0000aust/page/81|title=Music in the 20th Century: From Debussy through Stravinsky|last=Austin|first=William W.|date=1966|publisher=W. W. Norton|isbn=0393097048|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/musicin20thcentu0000aust/page/81 81]|oclc=504195}}</ref> The first measures of the second movement of ''Sinfonietta'' are shown below.

[[File:Janacek Sinfonietta 2nd movement opening two measures.png|thumb|center|650x650px|[[File:Janacek Sinfonietta 2nd movement opening two measures.mid]]]]

[[Giacomo Puccini]] used whole-tone scales as well as [[pentatonic scale]]s in his 1904 opera ''[[Madama Butterfly]]'' to imitate east Asian music styles.

The first of [[Alban Berg]]'s [[Seven Early Songs (Berg)|Seven Early Songs]] opens with a whole-tone passage both in the orchestral accompaniment and in the vocal line that enters a bar later.<ref>Berg (1928), Sieben Fruhe Lieder, Wien, Universal Edition</ref> Berg also quotes the Bach chorale setting referred to above in his [[Violin Concerto (Berg)|Violin Concerto]]. The last four notes of the [[tone row|12-tone row]] Berg used are B, C{{music|#}}, E{{music|b}} and F, which, together with the first note, G, comprise five of the six notes of the scale.)

[[Béla Bartók]] also uses whole-tone scales in his [[String Quartet No. 5 (Bartók)|fifth string quartet]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra|url=https://archive.org/details/bartkconcertofor00coop|url-access=limited|last=Cooper|first=David|date=1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0521480043|location=Cambridge|page=[https://archive.org/details/bartkconcertofor00coop/page/n77 70]|oclc=32626039}}</ref> [[Ferruccio Busoni]] used the whole-tone scale in the right hand part of the "Preludietto, Fughetta ed Esercizio" of his ''[[An die Jugend]]'', and [[Franz Liszt]] had used the technique as early as 1831, in the ''Grande Fantaisie sur La clochette''.<ref>Jeremy Nicholas, "Loving Liszt", ''[[Limelight (magazine)|Limelight]]'', April 2011, p. 50</ref>